ABSTRACT
As the third part of the copyright authorship-readership-entrepreneurship ontological trilogy, this chapter takes up Hong Kong’s second failed attempt of copyright reform for the digital age as a case study, with a focus on the entrepreneurship-readership ontological dynamics of the contract override issue. Although Hong Kong’s two failed attempts of copyright amendment in the 2011 Bill and 2014 Bill shared with one another an emphasis on copyright’s contention with free speech, the contract override issue indicates a particular ontological confusion as to the nature of copyright, i.e. contract freedom and international obligation of the balance of rights and obligations. As property right recognition gives constitutional support to copyright and contract serves as the means to individual freedom manifested in private property, contract override bears certain constitutional legitimacy. This chapter argues that, however, while property right has an in-built limitation from the needs of others, and the Victorian sanctity of contract has been gradually qualified by “the needs of the all,” the ontological balance of rights and obligations to the consideration of public interest and social development is imperative and is an international obligation for intellectual property protection under TRIPS, subject to no derogation.
